Robbed Sailor Kills Prostitute

In 1863 an Irish sailor was hanged after he killed a prostitute who he believed had taken money from him whilst he slept.

On Saturday 20^th June at about 4am O’Brien met a prostitute named Mary Mathers in Lime Street and after having some ale with her they both went to the brothel where she stayed in Spitalfields (near Whitechapel). Whilst O’Brien slept, Mathers later admitted that she took two shillings out of his pocket to purchase ale which she drank with Elizabeth Callaghan. When O’Brien awoke, he awoke he accused Callaghan of the theft but she denied it. O’Brien told the others in the house that he had been robbed of £5, but if he could have £3 back he would forget about it.

Mathers accompanied O’Brien to the police station but he was not satisfied with their response and when they refused to arrest all the women at the brothel, he said he would sort the situation out himself. He then bought a knife for 9d from a cutlery shop in Dale Street, asking for a stone on which to sharpen it then he and Mathers took a cab driven by John Hargreaves to Spitalfields. Once there, he was greeted by Callaghan who threw her arms around him and playfully took off his neckerchief and smacked him with it. O’Brien sent for some ale and invited the cabman in to share it, a request that was declined.

The three sat drinking and there seemed no cause for alarm and Mathers motioned to O’Brien to join her upstairs. As she was going up to the bedroom O’Brien got up and stabbed Callaghan, who was sat by the fire holding a small dog, in the stomach. He then walked out and got inside the same cab that had dropped him off there. Mathers had screamed ‘murder’ from a window leading to the cabman stopping the first policeman on Manchester Street he saw to alert him to his suspicions. O’Brien was taken to the Bridewell and Hargreaves then returned to Spitalfields and took Callaghan to the Infirmary, where she died a few hours later.  

At the Bridewell, the police officer who had earlier not been willing to arrest all the women asked O’Brien why he had done what he did, to which he replied that it had been justified as he was robbed. He apologised for his actions and surrendered his blood stained knife. A post mortem revealed that Callaghan’s liver had almost been severed and when he was committed for trial O’Brien said that his actions had taken place because of how drunk he was. He said to the court ‘No man would do the likes of that if he was right in the head.’

O’Brien was tried on 20^th August, with Mathers and other prostitutes who had been there on the day giving evidence. Hargreaves also testified as did the owner of the cutlery shop, while all those who saw him including police officers said he was quite sober. His defence counsel Mr Pope said that there had been no premeditation but that he had been driven by intense passion and a sense of wrongdoing. As such, he urged the jury to find him guilty instead of manslaughter, which he admitted was of an aggravated character. The judge did not give him much hope though when summing up, pointing out the evidence which suggested O’Brien had a clear intent in his mind to kill. 

The jury returned a verdict of guilty after just a few minutes and O’Brien wept as the sentence of death was passed. O'Brien was hanged at Kirkdale on 12th September in a quadruple execution before a crowd of 100,000.

Woman's Prophecy of Husbands Execution

A woman who told her husband he would be the next person to be hanged at Kirkdale gaol turned out to be right after he brutally battered her to death.


In 1863, fifty one year old shoemaker John Hughes and his wife Mary lived unhappily together in Great Homer Street where Mary ran a grocers shop, the profits of which funded her husband’s intemperate habits as he rarely put his trade to good use. 

On 23^rd April that year Hughes went to Kirkdale gaol to witness the execution of two men who had killed a woman near Blackburn and was prophetically told by his wife that if he carried on the way he was going, he would be up there next. Mary was a sober industrious woman and her friends knew how badly she was being treated by her husband.

On the evening of Sunday 26^th April Hughes asked Mary for money for drink, striking her when she refused and saying again that he’d be hung for her. The following night they argued again and he pushed her before going out to a pub in Scotland Road. Mary went along there at midnight with her shop servant, 12 year old Elizabeth White, who persuaded him to return home. Being too afraid to go to bed with him, Mary stayed up all night and when Hughes woke at 5am, he demanded more drink and Elizabeth got him some whisky.

A few hours later Hughes got up as Mary went to bed. When she told him she had no money he hit her with his fist, causing her to fall out of bed onto the floor. He then put on his boots and jumped on top of her several times and kicked her until she was unable to move. Hughes then left her lying on the floor and eventually Elizabeth plucked up the courage to ask for help from a neighbour, Mrs Jones. Mary told her what had happened and a doctor was called, Hughes denying to him that any assault had taken place. As a consequence of the injuries the police were called and Hughes brazenly sat on a chair and joked that she would be alright if she was just given another pint.

Hughes was arrested and initially charged with carrying out a murderous assault, being remanded for seven days. Mary remained in a paralysed state and died on the evening of 30^th April. A post mortem revealed that part of her vertebrae had fractured, causing pressure on the spinal cord and paralysis and death was a direct result of her injuries. The coroners inquest returned a verdict of manslaughter but the police were happy to persist with a murder charge and Hughes was committed to the Assizes.

On 19^th August Hughes appeared before Mr Justice Blackburn, with evidence being given by Elizabeth, Mrs Jones and another neighbour Mrs Halpin in respect of what happened between 26^th and 28^th April, as well as the marriage in general. The surgeon who had attended said that given the way in which Mary was lying, the injuries sustained could not possibly have been caused as a result of a fall. Hughes’s defence counsel had a tough job to do and the best they could come up with was that he was drinking solidly for three weeks prior so was too drunk to understand the consequences of his violence, therefore a manslaughter verdict was more appropriate.

In summing up, the judge said that drunkenness was not an excuse and the charge could only come down to manslaughter if Hughes was so drunk that he did not even know harm could be caused by his actions.  The jury deliberated for just a few minutes before asking some clarifications as to the injuries. After just a few more minutes a guilty verdict was returned and Hughes declined to comment before sentence was passed. Justice Blackburn was brutal with his words, telling him that ‘it is absolutely necessary for the ends of justice that wives should be protected from the violence of their husbands and now all I have to do is pass upon you the sentence which the law requires. 

After the death sentence was passed Hughes fainted and had to be carried from the dock to the cells by court officials. He was was one of four prisoners hanged in front of a crowd of 100,000 at Kirkdale on 12th September 1863.

Mouse Killer Stabs Partner

A 30 year old man whose barbarous tendencies had cost him his job a few years earlier ended up being hanged after he killed his partner when she renewed her acquaintance with an ex lover.

In the 1850s Thomas Edwards worked as a gas fitter in Liverpool, but was dismissed from his employment after he was caught roasting a mouse alive over a burner on his employer's premises. He then joined the army and went to Crimea, although his regiment did not see any action.

On his return to Liverpool he resumed a relationship with Isabella Tonge, who according to the Liverpool Mercury kept a 'disreputable house' in a court off Norman Street on London Road. They had two children who died in infancy and Edwards worked as a jobbing butcher, fetching meat from the abattoir and aking it to shops. He didn't drink and begged Tonge not to make a living from the streets, as he felt he could earn enough to keep the two of them.

In November 1862 a man named Thomas Sullivan, a former lover of Tonge's who had been away doing penal servitude for robbery returned to Liverpool. He went straight to Norman Court and immediately resumed intimate relations with Tonge, who didn't hide the fact from Edwards.

On the evening of 26th November Edwards returned to the house at about 7pm and was told by another lodger that Sullivan and Tonge had been out since noon. Edwards went out for some ale and rum, his first alcohol for four years, which he drank before falling asleep on the sofa. At 2am the couple returned and Sullivan told Edwards it was no business of his where they had been, but the three of them sat up for some time on friendly terms, along with the lodger Jane Wilson.

To avoid any awkward situations Tonge suggested that the two men slept upstairs with the women downstairs. All parties were agreeable to this but Edwards came back down soon afterwards and carried out a frenzied attack on Tonge, stabbing her nineteen times in the neck and breast. As Tonge desperately tried to defend herself with a poker, Wilson tried to intervene and was stabbed in the arm, but her screams of 'murder' were heard by passers by who shouted for the police. Sullivan was awoken by the commotion and came downstairs, to which Edwards reacted by stabbing him in the thigh.

Edwards left the property but inexplicably came back shortly afterwards to change. While he was leaving again a police constable arrived and Edwards invited him in to see his 'work.' The officer was greeted with the sight of Tonge, who was barely alive, lying on the floor. Edwards was taken into custody while Tonge and Sullivan were taken to the Royal Infirmary.

As he being taken to the Bridewell Edwards said he had stabbed Tonge to get revenge and hoped that she was dead. On arrival he told the keeper that if Tonge survived and he was transported as a punishment, then he would return on his release to finish her off. Edwards claimed he gave her all his earnings but she was still unfaithful to him, and he had warned her the day before of his intentions if she continued seeing Sullivan. One of the wounds had punctured Tonge's lung and there was very little chance of survival and she died on 2nd December as a direct result of that injury.

Tonge had been able to make a deposition in which she said that she had been keeping Edwards by prostitution and he threatened to kill her if she didn't give this up. On the night of the murder she claimed he had asked for money and she refused to give any, leading to the stabbing.

Edwards showed little interest in the impending court proceedings, showing a resigned acceptance to his fate. When asked if he had anything to say before sentence of death was passed he said there was little point. There was little doubt about his guilt given he subsequently stated his intention to kill, but the jury did recommend mercy on the grounds of the provocation caused by the relationship between Sullivan and Tonge.

Whilst in prison Edwards remained remarkably calm given what was coming, and chatted happily with the turnkeys. However when the Home Secretary refused to commute the sentence to life imprisonment his mood changed and he spent much more time reading the bible and praying. His mother had her final tearful farewell with him on Friday 2nd January, the day before the execution was due to take place. On the same day he executioner Calcraft hanged a 70 year old man who had killed his wife in Worcester, before heading up to Kirkdale to spend the night at the gaol.

On the morning of the execution the build up was quite low key, with only 500 estimated to be in attendance at 11.30am, half an hour before it was due to take place. Suddenly though, according to the Liverpool Mercury, 'hundreds of wretched looking men and women, and ragged children', were making their way up Scotland Road and Vauxhall Road towards Kirkdale. By noon there were about 10,000 present as Edwards took his place on the scaffold, saying 'Lord Have Mercy Upon Me' three times before the bolt was drawn. His body remained hanging for an hour before being buried within the precints of the prison.

Man Hanged For Killing Wife Who Wouldn't Get Back With Him

A man who came to Liverpool from his Birkenhead lodgings in the hope of winning back his wife's affections stabbed her when she refused to resume normal marital relations, leading to him being hanged after she died two months afterwards.

On the 8th June 1860 Thomas Gallagher, a 40 year old shoemaker, took the ferry to Liverpool and went to Copperas Hill, where his daughter from an earlier marriage lodged with a lady called Mrs Detreks. Whilst visiting her he was told that his wife was likely to call around some time that day and he then went for a drink, calling back on several occasions in between visits to pubs to see if Mary was at the property. The couple had been separated for about a month and having secured accommodation and work in Birkenhead, Gallagher was hopeful she may return there with him.

Finally at about 6pm Mary, who was Gallagher's third wife, was there and the couple went into the parlour. Shortly afterwards Mrs Detreks heard cries of 'murder' and ran in to the room, where Gallagher was in the act of stabbing Mary with a knife that had been on the table. She quickly called for assistance from a neighbour called Mr Shepherd who managed to wrestle the knife from him. Mary was taken to the Infirmary suffering from four wounds, one of which had pierced the bone, while Mr Shepherd kept hold of Gallagher until the police arrived. Before the police got there, Gallagher told Shepherd that he wished he had killed her for all the aggravation that had been caused. On arrival at the Bridewell, Gallagher was told of his charge and replied to the keeper that he was sober and he wished that he had finished her off.

Mary regained consciousness and despite doctors giving her little chance of survival she was able to give a deposition from her hospital bed. She explained that she was living at 45 Summerseat in Vauxhall and that he wanted her to go to Birkenhead with him, promising to mend his previous ways drunkenness. However because she was keen to go back to her property as she had left their younger children alone, Gallagher got the wrong impression and stabbed her without provocation. Despite this, she said she forgave him with all her heart.

Even though she was critically injured, Mary battled on and she was joined in hospital by Gallagher's daughter, who was suffering from consumption and would die a few weeks later. Mary remained alive until 6th August, dying of complications caused by the wound to the shoulder, which had caused a number of abscesses. A post mortem revealed that her internal organs were healthy and concluded that she had died from 'exhaustion consequent upon the injuries she had received.' The following day, the coroner's court brought a verdict of wilful murder and he was committed for trial at the imminent Assizes on a charge of murder rather than attempted murder.

Gallagher was tried on 16th August, with Mrs Detreks and Mr Shepherd giving evidence. Gallagher defended himself and said that he was drunk, and that he had no intention of seeing his wife that day, it was only when his daughter said she would be around that he made sure he met her. The judge's summing up was brief and to the point. Dismissing drunkenness as an excuse, he said that if the evidence was believed, then Gallagher was guilty of murder, as he had picked up the knife and told others he wished he had finished her off. It took just a few minutes for the jury to return a guilty verdict and Gallagher was sentenced to death. He replied to the judge that he only knew what he had done when he was told the next day and that he had never been in gaol before.

Petitions asking for commutation of the sentenced were raised by two of Gallagher's brothers, one of whom lived in his native Dublin and the other in Liverpool. Gallagher's former employer, who lived in Great George Street, gathered hundreds of signatures from that area. The grounds set out for a reprieve were that the crime was committed in the heat of passion and Mary's refusal to go to Birkenhead with him had been an act of provocation. However, the Home Secretary refused to intervene and the execution, which was to take place in public, was set for Saturday 8th September. Gallagher himself had never held out any hope and spent most of his time in jail praying before bidding a tearful farewell to his two youngest children, who were now in the care of the workhouse, the day before the execution.

Spectators began to gather at 7am, entertaining themselves by playing leapfrog and pitch-and-toss. By noon the crowd had risen to 20,000, most of whom were described by the Liverpool Mercury as from the 'lower order of society.' Amongst the gathering were the crew of an Egyptian frigate which was berthed at Sandon Dock. As Calcraft prepared to draw the bolt, Gallagher shouted 'Blessed Jesus, Mary and Joseph, assist me in my last agony.' As soon as the body was lifeless most of the crowd dispersed although a handful remained until it was cut down at 1pm and buried in the precints of the prison.

Acquitted of Murder - But Still Hanged

In 1830 a Liverpool merchant died after being shot during a robbery in West Derby Road. Yet although the two men charged with the murder were acquitted, they were hanged anyway after being convicted of other robberies.

On the evening of 9th October Charles Burns, a wine merchant whose businesses premises were in Exchange Street East, was walking along West Derby Road towards his home in Tuebrook. About half a mile after passing the Necropolis (now Grant Gardens), a man jumped out from behind a hedge and held a pistol at him. Burns turned to run away in the direction of Liverpool but was shot in the back, but he did manage to get up and knock at the home of a Mr Turton, who sent for a surgeon.

The surgeon who arrived managed to remove the bullet from Burns's abdomen and he was taken home. However he had lost a remarkable amount of blood and died 24 hours later, having been able to give a description of the robber as being about five feet nine inches tall and wearing dark clothing. Having failed to seize anything from Burns, the culprit remained in the same place for an hour and a half before robbing John Arrowsmith, this time with two accomplices. Arrowsmith was a cousin of Burns who was on his way to Mr Turton's to assist in bringing him home.

The following Thursday a man tried to pawn a pencil case in Tithebarn Street. Noticing that it was engraved Arrowsmith a constable was called and the man, who had come to Liverpool earlier in the year from Dublin and was a 50 year old named Thomas Mulvay, was taken into custody. The following day his two brothers, John (34) and Michael (30) were arrested at their home in Naylor Street, where they lived with Michael's wife.

The brothers were charged with a number of robberies that had taken place in the area and committed for trial at the next assizes, then transferred to Lancaster Castle to await trial. Then in a remarkable development on 8th March 1831 Michael Mulvay expressed to the gaol chaplain that his brothers had been responsible for the shooting of Burns and he wished to turn King's Evidence against them.

The trial took place just three days later on 11th March, with Michael claiming that all three had gone out with the intention of committing a robbery but it was John who told Thomas to shoot. When cross examined over his motives for giving evidence against his brothers, Michael said he did so because he loved justice, and he had not done it expecting to have robbery charges against him dropped. John and Thomas both denied the murder, saying they had been drinking in Hoey's in Tithebarn Street that night, but the owner of the pub, Matthew Hoey, said they had only been in their Sunday to Wednesday.

After 15 minutes deliberation, the jury found the defendants not guilty of murder, but the ordeal in the courtroom wasn't over yet for all three brothers. Michael was kept in custody while enquiries were made as to whether he should be sent to York in relation to other offences, but he was released the following Thursday when it was deemed he was not being charged with anything. 

On the same day, John and Thomas stood trial in relation to two robberies in the vicinity that had taken place in July 1830. The jury heard how the victims' belongings had been found at their home and they were found guilty and sentenced to death. As they sank to their knees begging for mercy Justice Littledale told them that they were 'responsible for several depredations in the neighbourhood' and he 'should not be doing his duty to the public were he to recommend them to His Majesty's mercy.'

The execution was set for 2nd April and both brothers admitted to the Rev. G. Brown, the Roman Catholic Priest of Lancaster, that they had been responsible for 7 robberies in total and John confessed to having shot Charles Burns, who left a widow and one child. At noon both brothers mounted the scaffold and went to their deaths holding hands. John died instantly but Thomas, having turned after the rope was placed around his neck, struggled violently for five minutes and his death had to be hastened by the executioner pulling at his feet. After hanging for an hour they were buried in St Mary's churchyard.